You are here

Justice News

Department of Justice

U.S. Attorney’s Office

Southern District of West Virginia

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Tuesday, March 25, 2014

Chapmanville Man Pleads Guilty To Selling Prescription Painkillers

CHARLESTON, W.Va. – A Chapmanville, W.Va. man who sold the powerful prescription painkiller oxymorphone, commonly sold under the brand name Opana, pleaded guilty today to a federal drug charge, announced U.S. Attorney Booth Goodwin. Carl Tomblin, 50, pleaded guilty to distribution of oxymorphone before United States District Judge John T. Copenhaver, Jr. in Charleston.

On five separate occasions in December of 2013, Tomblin sold oxymorphone to a confidential informant in exchange for cash. Tomblin admitted to law enforcement that he had been purchasing and distributing oxymorphone from approximately May of 2013 through January of 2014.

Tomblin tested positive for the drug Benzodiazepine, commonly known as Valium or Xanax. As a result, the court ordered Tomblin released on home confinement with electronic monitoring. Tomblin faces up to 20 years in federal prison when he is sentenced on June 25, 2014.

The investigation was conducted by the U.S. 119 Task Force and the West Virginia State Police. Assistant United States Attorney Haley Bunn is handling the prosecution.

The prosecution is part of an ongoing effort by the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of West Virginia to combat the illicit sale and misuse of prescription drugs and heroin. The U.S. Attorney’s Office, joined by federal, state and local law enforcement agencies, is committed to aggressively pursuing and shutting down illegal pill trafficking, eliminating open air drug markets, and curtailing the spread of opiate painkillers and heroin in communities across the Southern District.